People fear what they don't understand
Hate what they can't conquer
Guess it's just inferior man
-Nas, Hate Me Now
There's plenty about USC Trojans quarterback and presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft Caleb Williams that we don't yet understand. But how could we? How could anyone effectively put themselves in the shoes of the sort of athlete we haven't seen before?
No, Caleb Williams is not the first superstar college quarterback who is expected to enter the NFL and take the league by storm. He's not the first college athlete who shot to fame while living under the microscope for the duration of his collegiate career. He's also not the first college player who has come into the predraft process attempting to yield an extraordinary amount of power.
But Williams is the first NIL superstar to come into the NFL, and on top of that, he's a dude who marches to the beat of his own drum, completely unafraid of what the outside world is going to think about him. He regularly paints his fingernails, which has sparked far too many reactions over the last two years.
He entered the stands and cried on his mother's shoulder after a loss this past season, which drew the ire of old heads who sound like they're doing their best Tom Hanks impression when they say, “There's no crying in football!”
And yes, Caleb Williams made a boatload of NIL money over the last two years at USC. Around $10 million, according to Kalyn Kahler of The Athletic. Does that quantify as a boatload?
“He is a business,” one league source shared with Adam Jahns and Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic.
But just because Caleb Williams “is a business” and has potentially made a boatload of money — still waiting on confirmation of what dollar amount actually equates to “a boatload” — are we sure that's a bad thing? It used to be that one of the primary concerns about incoming rookies was that they wouldn't know how to properly manage their money and adjust to the NFL lifestyle.
If anything, hasn't the way Williams has lived the last two years at USC while making millions because of NIL theoretically put him in a better position to succeed with the Chicago Bears, or whoever it is that ends up selecting him in the NFL Draft?
That's not the way that everyone around the league sees it. But maybe that has more to do with the Chicago Bears organization than it does Caleb Williams.
“Some league sources specifically questioned how the Bears — as an organization — would navigate everything that comes with a quarterback such as Williams,” according to Jahns and Fishbain. “He’s not your typical rookie draft pick because of his significant NIL deals, tendency to buck trends and longtime marketing team. As one league source said, ‘just check out his website.'”
Yes, the website does indeed provide a unique and in-depth look at Caleb Williams, the once-in-a-generation athlete and the trend-setting businessman, but nothing of what I saw on that site stands out as problematic.
Sure, we get the full rundown of Caleb's social media handles and the brands he's partnered with. But there's also a section that covers Williams' love of Superman and how he wants to use his own superpowers to help children who are being bullied.
The Caleb Cares Foundation, whose mission statement is “to inspire more superheroes to fight bullying so we can all realize that what makes us different is our superpower,” plans to focus on Anti-Bullying, Youth Empowerment, and Mental Health Awareness.
My God! What a travesty!
I'll concede that my position is perhaps slightly skewed because my favorite football team — the Chicago Bears — are likely going to end up selecting Williams with the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. So I've spent the last two months wrapping my head around what it will be like to watch him play, hopefully with a rooting interest, for the next 15 years or so.
But the closer we get to draft night, the more it feels like, even after removing my own biases, a lot of folks are nitpicking a 22-year-old in a really strange way simply because of the success he's already had.
It's not fair. It's not right. And unfortunately, it's not unexpected, because as legendary New York rapper Nas once rhymed:
Hate on me
I blew but I'm the so OG
People warned me
‘When you're on top there's envy'
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